


autoclave

by platonics



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Analysis, Character Study, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Incest, Mental Health Issues, Meta, Other, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:02:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24633523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/platonics/pseuds/platonics
Summary: A meta piece/character analysis discussing Korekiyo's role as Himiko's foil within the game, and their similarities when it comes to topics such as vulnerability and control. Originally posted on the DR amino.
Relationships: Shinguji Korekiyo & Yumeno Himiko, Shinguji Korekiyo/Yumeno Himiko
Comments: 17
Kudos: 17





	autoclave

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time posting any kind of meta/non-fic content here and i'm not sure how much of an audience there is for it, but i'm proud of how this turned out and it got a rly good reaction on amino so 😳👉👈
> 
> i didn't rewrite any of it/change anything beyond basic formatting stuff, so there may be moments here and there that make it clear it was written for a slightly different audience, but nothing that should affect enjoyment of it! however, the original post includes screenshots of certain scenes i talk about and this doesn't, so if you'd rather read that version, you can find it [here](http://aminoapps.com/p/pytrhr)
> 
> as the summary says, this mostly talks about how korekiyo and himiko can be seen as foils and certain overlooked similarities between them -- it's largely not about shipping or romance beyond a few brief mentions here and there. however, it's my hope that this might provide a foundation/something to think about when writing them interacting, and that it might inspire more people to do so, whether platonically or romantically!

**intro**

so, this a blog i’ve been wanting to write for a long while. about a year ago (probably longer by the time this is actually posted), i wrote my ‘why i ship himikiyo’ blog. it was my first attempt to try to condense some of my reasons and feelings into a more organized format, rather than scattered over zillions of different conversations, posts, and so on. even at the time though, i wasn’t satisfied. i knew i probably wanted to make a follow-up at some point, but it wasn’t really a top priority.

now, after mulling over ideas for a few months, i’m finally ready to give it a try. in some ways, this is a sequel to ‘why i ship himikiyo,’ and that’s kinda the angle i’m coming from, but this isn’t meant to just be about romance or shipping. the original blog was a general overview on my personal reasons why it became my favorite ship, something i could link to people who asked me why. today, i’ll instead be comparing their characters, pointing out some similarities, and talking about their potential dynamic from that perspective. 

as friends, enemies, or anything else, i think they have such a unique, fascinating dynamic, and as i’ve steadily talked to more and more people over the past couple of years who feel similarly, the more reasons i find. if this blog inspires even one person to make some content of their own, that would make me very happy. 

getting to the point, what specifically am i going to be comparing? the main focuses are themes of vulnerability, control, and repression. in these areas, i think it could be argued that they serve as foils to each other, illuminating what could have been if himiko wasn’t able to move forward, or if korekiyo was. korekiyo is the dark to himiko’s light. just as she starts on the path towards real change and growth, kiyo is there to show the dangers of making the opposite choice. 

_please note that this blog touches on themes of depression, including a mention of suicidal ideation, and sister’s abuse of korekiyo is brought up multiple times, so take caution if topics related to that make you uncomfortable!_

big chunks of my argument rest on the fact that this abuse did occur, but i don’t discuss the textual support for it at length, as many other people have already done so (and this blog would be like 2k words longer if i did). instead, it’s assumed that the reader already understands the basic idea that kiyo is an abuse victim. if you disagree, you probably won’t enjoy it much, and that’s fine. it’s not a point i’m remotely interested in debating.

aside from that, as always, this analysis is just my own interpretation!

**emotional repression**

first off, emotional repression. it’s true that many characters in v3 engage in this to some extent, hiding perceived weaknesses or undesirable emotions. a whole blog could be written talking about the whole cast on just this issue. unsurprising, considering the truth vs lies theme of the game. but once you dig a little deeper, korekiyo and himiko’s specific ways of hiding their feelings have more in common.

although many characters in the cast have ways of hiding their true emotions, like angie’s perpetual cheerfulness, kaito’s reckless confidence, or kokichi’s mischievous nature, they still do show emotion in some form or another. none of those three could be called stoic, that’s for sure. one way himiko and korekiyo differ from their classmates is that they both try to repress their emotions entirely, rather than simply masking them with other ones. 

in himiko’s case, this should be obvious. her early apathy and struggles around learning to be more expressive form the basis of much of her character development. she doesn’t express much passion or seem to hold strong opinions on anything in the first couple of chapters (aside from her magic, of course). even after she begins bonding with angie, her comments about atua aren’t exactly *emotional.* she does draw comfort from having a source of escapism and someone else to make decisions for her, which i’ll be talking more about later, but her overall demeanor doesn’t change much. tenko and shuichi both talk about how hard it is to even interpret her facial expressions. 

this is perceived by the majority of the cast as being pure laziness, and himiko’s own comments about things being too much of a pain don’t exactly do much to convince them otherwise. it’s not that simple, of course, but because it _seems_ to be, pretty much everyone dismisses her as not being worth their time. despite how bad it must feel to be treated that way, himiko has no reason to try to change their minds. excessive laziness is a flaw, but not necessarily a weakness. it’s a choice — if that’s the reason for her behavior, she _could_ do plenty of things and be successful at them, but she doesn’t feel like it. 

the overwhelming depression and fear she actually feels, however...that’s a vulnerability that can be exploited. himiko is easily the physically weakest one there, not a good thing to be in a killing game. with her fragile mental state on top of that, she could be a very tempting victim. indeed, ryoma’s death in chapter 2 proves how depression and suicidal ideation can easily be taken advantage of. all of this was probably on himiko’s mind. she wanted to avoid seeming weak to others, but even more than that, she wanted to avoid seeming weak _to herself._

distraction and escapism are very common coping methods. sometimes even just thinking about all the horrible things going on around you can be enough to crush your will to carry on. the more you bottle things up, the more it might feel like if you let yourself give in even for a moment, you might never be able to get it under control again. falling apart wouldn’t do anything to change the awful situation she’s in, and would, in her mind, reveal once and for all what a useless burden she really is. as we see several times, such as after she investigates rantaro’s dorm room in chapter 6, himiko is someone who desperately wants to be useful and have worth to her friends. this isn’t outwardly expressed much until after she’s developed, but it’s doubtful the actual feeling came out of nowhere. that desire to be useful was there all along.

one of the biggest examples in the first half of the game is the aftermath of her magic show. as the ultimate magician, her talent is her biggest source of pride. himiko mentions several times how her magic is supposed to make people smile and heal broken hearts. not only do most of her classmates freely ridicule her magic, her show is co-opted by kirumi for murder. it becomes the exact opposite of what she wanted to accomplish, accelerating her downward spiral and prompting her to give up even more control to angie. the student council is another chance to give herself meaning, and it works, but only for a while.

this repression and distancing from her emotions is also shown in her initial lack of connections to others. pre-development, himiko doesn’t try to get close to the others. if anything, she pushes them away. in both kaede and shuichi’s first free time events with her, she acts disinterested and makes no real effort to engage. likewise, tenko’s affection is entirely unwanted and unwelcome. himiko repeatedly makes it clear that they aren’t as close as tenko thinks they are. even angie, arguably her one friend in the first half of the game, is the one to approach himiko. angie is a very outgoing, controlling person, and that suits himiko’s needs at the time, but i don’t think they would have gotten close if angie hadn’t been the one to initiate it.

setting aside the extra variable of tenko’s pushy behavior, these examples show a pattern of fear and distrust. you never know who might betray you — if you don’t get close to someone in the first place, you can’t get hurt. additionally, keeping everyone at arm’s length lessens the risk of someone finding all the parts of herself she wants to hide. untethered, she’s free to ignore reality as much as possible.

korekiyo clearly has a whole mental health cocktail of his own, and is even more isolated. he’s not shy or antisocial — far from it. he likes to be around people in order to observe them, and doesn’t seem to have any qualms about contributing in trials or chatting with others, especially when anything connected to anthropology comes up. however, like himiko, he keeps everyone at arm’s length. he’s not really shown to be close to any person in particular. because of his sister, he’s likely _never_ had a true friend of his own, at least not since he was a young child. the mere idea of it would be unthinkable. it would be a distraction from his mission.

by maintaining his role as an observer and his classmates as research subjects, he can both more easily fulfill sister’s wishes and separate himself from the real danger of the situation. even during the time limit in chapter 1, he shows no fear for his life, as if it all has nothing to do with him. though he does call everyone his friends before his execution, it’s not a sentiment that anyone seems to take seriously, and maybe rightfully so. it’s possible to have casual friends and acquaintances who you don’t know much about, but for a deep, meaningful connection to be established, some level of emotional vulnerability is needed. with kiyo, that’s never given.

while his affect isn’t quite as flat as himiko’s, he comes off as ‘creepy’ from the very beginning, and some of that is due to his calm, unruffled attitude. multiple people are disturbed by how casually he can talk about gruesome topics, and when his lab is discovered in chapter 3, shuichi is quite surprised by his behavior, emphasizing how unusual it is. both positive and negative emotions — his gleeful shouting and rushing around to check out all the artifacts and his threats to kokichi respectively — are openly on display for the very first time. 

prior to the chapter 3 trial, both korekiyo and himiko are shown to lose their composure in relation to only two things: being able to show off their talents, and having things related to those talents threatened. those biggest interests are deeply important as sources of comfort and meaning, and they also provide a sense of control. however, nobody can keep things bottled up forever. there’s always a breaking point, and these smaller events hint towards the fact that they’ll each eventually lose that control in spectacular fashion.

this leads into my next topic, but before that, i want to mention one more detail. after korekiyo’s execution, kokichi says that “it’s not good to lie to yourself” in relation to himiko’s behavior. the timing was incredibly appropriate. the connection to korekiyo isn’t brought up by anyone, but in his last scenes, he was likely lying to himself as well — about his relationship with his sister. 

it’s not uncommon for abuse survivors to minimize the severity of the abuse or outright deny that anything bad happened at all, because that’s what the abuser groomed them to believe. i won’t go into listing them all, but even with the series’ questionable track record when it comes to handling sensitive topics like abuse and mental illness, there’s plenty of hints that the situation was far from the mutual arrangement kiyo makes it out to be. unfortunately, he never gets the chance to heal and, as kokichi would put it, stop lying to himself. 

not only does he die believing his own lies, everyone else believes them too. feel free to correct me if it turns out i forgot a line, but as far as i remember from the many times i’ve been through v3, with the exception of optional flavor text if you check places like his room or lab, korekiyo is _never_ specifically mentioned again after his death. he’s the _only_ one in the game this is true for (except maybe tsumugi but like. the epilogue isn’t that long.) even posthumously, he gets no opportunity for change. this is one example of how korekiyo’s stagnation acts as a foil to himiko’s growth. 

**behavior when upset**

in the previous section, i established that both characters keep things bottled up in favor of projecting a calm, apathetic front, but when pushed to the limit, that control will slip, leading to emotional outbursts. digging even deeper, their mannerisms when those outbursts do happen or come close to happening share some similarities as well.

the most notable example is that they’re both shown to shake uncontrollably when distressed. in korekiyo’s case, the entire _screen_ shakes too, and at one point in his breakdown, the influence gauge damage sound effect even plays, the only time this happens without the player actually getting something wrong. plenty of other characters are shown to have meltdowns in some form or another, kirumi probably being the most dramatic example, but kiyo and himiko are the only two whose sprites shake like this.

trembling or shaking is, of course, one of the major symptoms of panic attacks. feeling out of control, stumbling over your words, sweating, a sense of impending doom...as someone who has personal experience with panic attacks and how they feel, i see korekiyo’s breakdown as a pretty clear example of one. while himiko never has reason to reach quite that level of distress, and seems to internalize her feelings more than korekiyo anyway (eg her going totally silent and unresponsive vs him getting increasingly outspoken and combative), there are enough clues to suggest that she has similar tendencies. 

it’s possible that part of the reason they both keep their feelings so tightly locked down is because of this tendency towards intense anxiety. a natural reaction to fear of losing control is to try to control things even more. 

secondly, they both fixate on the supposed failure of an event instead of being concerned about the murder that just occurred. in chapter 2, himiko’s magic show is ruined by the discovery of ryoma’s body in the water tank. as everyone else reacts to that and starts investigating, himiko is mostly still focused on her show. she’s shocked about ryoma, of course, but most of her dialogue in the investigation is about being sad her magic show couldn’t make everyone smile and defending her magic. this carries into the trial, until the trick is figured out and she’s forced to agree.

in the next chapter, korekiyo’s dialogue in the latter part of the investigation matches up with that pretty closely. he feigns surprise at tenko’s death, but doesn’t even bother pretending to be that concerned about it, focusing on the seance instead. the fact that he can’t stop talking about the seance failing instead of the more pressing matter at hand is commented on and maki tells him off pretty harshly, much like how everyone reacts to himiko’s stubbornness about her magic.

obviously, the biggest difference here is that himiko was merely framed for ryoma’s murder, while korekiyo really did kill tenko. it’s possible that reacting the way he did was a calculated effort to avoid suspicion, and i do think that he was pretty confident he’d be getting away with it at that point, but i think at least a small part of it was a genuine attempt at maintaining control. knowing you’re about to be on trial has to be pretty damn stressful. even for an experienced killer like korekiyo, the class trial experience is not the same as something like evading the police in the outside world. the single minded focus, the small pool of suspects, the life or death stakes...all of that makes the killing game riskier. 

both of them stay focused on a topic they’re intimately familiar with, and whose stakes are lower than the murder at hand. this is yet another tactic of denial and distraction, using the magic show and seance respectively to avoid fully processing (and potentially panicking over) the possibility of impending death. much like some of the other things i’ve already discussed, this is fairly common, and something i’ve experienced myself. when faced with something overwhelmingly distressing or traumatic, in that initial period of shock, you can find yourself focusing on something that doesn’t matter at all in the grand scheme of things, because that’s easier to cope with in the moment. 

to make this a bit easier to understand, i’ll provide a couple of other examples. in my fic ‘the things that scare us today,’ himiko can’t stop thinking about how someone’s going to need to clean the blood off the counter, rather than thinking about how the _source_ of the blood is the person she just caught korekiyo burying in the woods. or for a real life example, after i got the news that my mom died, one of the first things i started worrying about was who was going to help me do my makeup for the funeral, because i wasn’t very good at doing it myself yet. completely irrelevant compared to the fact that i’d just lost the most important person in my life, and yet that’s what my brain latched onto. 

the fact that (in my experience) this sort of reaction happens most often when faced with extreme loss isn’t a coincidence. coping with death is one of the core themes of chapter 3 and korekiyo’s character as a whole, and one of the threads that ties him and himiko together.

next, my final example before i wrap up this section. this one is less significant than the others, but i still felt like it was a detail worth noting. korekiyo is one of the characters in the game who is never really shown crying (though you can hear it in his voice towards the end, particularly in the original japanese), and himiko is first shown tearing up during their last conversation, and full-on crying for the first time right after his execution. this marks the real beginning of her character development, and i think it’s interesting that such an open display of emotion happens right after the death of someone who shared so many of her unhealthy coping mechanisms. 

~~(also the fact that she kinda started crying while they were still talking and she was telling him she couldn’t accept it [the case ending up like this] lowkey hints that maybe she’s sad abt him dying too but i said this wasn’t a shipping blog so)~~

~~ ~~ **self-soothing**

now, how about the other side of the coin? the ways they act when attempting to _prevent_ distress are comparable too. they’re both interested in aspects of the supernatural or occult, and those interests form the basis for escapist fantasies. when the worst happens and they’re forced back to reality, they each use the death of someone important to propel them forward instead of giving up. 

korekiyo is incredibly vocal about his interest in seances, spirits, and all things macabre. some of the pushing for a seance is because he wanted to kill, of course, but he talks about it even before chapter 3. he can’t possibly have been planning the seesaw trick before his lab was unlocked, since he’d have no way to know the equipment for the caged child would be there, and yet he mentions performing a seance as early as the chapter 2 flashback light. this, coupled with the anecdotes about participating in them before, indicates that his passion is genuine.

this belief in spirits and communicating with them is absolutely crucial to his stability and sense of self. we as players can see that the sister tulpa is just that, a tulpa. she’s something originating from his own brain, completely separate from the actual person who died. but korekiyo himself wholeheartedly believes it’s his sister’s spirit possessing him, and this is what gives him his mission and reason for living.

he mentions that in the year between sister’s death and his own near death experience, he “nearly went mad.” 

exactly what this might have entailed is up for debate, but it’s safe to say that if he describes it that way, he was far more erratic and visibly unstable than he is by the time of the killing game. he never mentions his parents or other important people besides his sister, and talks about traveling extensively for fieldwork, so it’s also a safe assumption that he had no support system for dealing with his grief. the comfort of believing she returned acts as an anchor, easing his distress and allowing him to, at the very least, appear functional.

his beliefs about death are also integral to his comfort with killing. contrary to some popular opinions, i don’t think he ever enjoyed killing. felt no remorse? yes. felt a sense of satisfaction in pleasing sister? yes. sadistic enjoyment in the actual act, just for the hell of it? no, i don’t think there’s any evidence to support that. he even takes offense at being characterized as a “bloodthirsty, indiscriminate killer.” whenever he mentions needing/wanting to kill, he specifies that he wants to kill _for sister._ korekiyo doesn’t strike me as an innately violent person. without the incentive of thinking it’s what sister wants/something he must do _for someone else_ , i doubt he would become a serial killer.

by the time of his death, he’s killed dozens of girls and become desensitized, but he probably didn’t start out that way. most people faced with needing to take a life would struggle quite a bit. by fully embracing beliefs about ghosts and thinking that death is just a change of form and not really a bad thing, he could justify his own actions and avoid feeling guilty. 

if this belief system was damaged, it would shatter him. not only would his rationale for killing be fake, he would have been doing it for NOTHING, and he’d have to grieve his sister all over again, this time with no hope of an eventual reunion. having “nearly gone mad” the first time, a second time would be even worse. this is all he has.

(maybe a bit of a tangent, but him hugging himself and other forms of physical self-soothing are also very obvious. this is meant to be indicative of the whole tulpa thing, but it also suggests that he’s very touch-starved and has probably gone without any kind of non-violent contact from others for a long time, even something as simple as a hug. turning to this kind of outward self-soothing in public settings where it’s likely to be seen as weird or socially inappropriate fits well with a history of childhood trauma, which can hinder the development of coping skills.)

himiko’s stage magic isn’t actually occult or supernatural, unlike korekiyo’s hobbies, but she wants people to see it that way. the game not exploring her interest in actual, witchy magic was a wasted opportunity in my opinion, but regardless, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine she likes it. her status as a mage and the power that comes with the abilities she insists she has helps keep her from feeling weak and afraid, as i talked about in previous sections. it pushes away negative feelings just like korekiyo’s beliefs push away guilt and loneliness. 

when angie introduces her to her religion, that’s an even better tool for escapism. himiko doesn’t discard her mage persona, but she devotes much of her time and focus to helping angie and praying to atua. trying to convince yourself that you’re strong and powerful can be helpful, but giving up control to a separate, all-powerful being is even better. she doesn’t have to accept responsibility for scary decisions or fear what might happen. all she has to do is follow directions and atua will make sure everything’s okay. this is part of why cults can seem so appealing.

whenever those negative feelings start cropping back up, like when tenko interrupts her praying or when angie reveals that tenko betrayed the student council, himiko retreats back into that mindset as quickly as possible, deferring to angie’s judgment. it shields her from the full impact of everything going on. 

just as korekiyo finds purpose in his mission to reach 100 friends, pursuing that goal above all else, himiko finds the motivation to help the other survivors end the killing game after chapter 3. she shuts down and openly gives up for most of the investigation and the early part of the trial, only finding her way after getting a couple of pep talks and taking on the responsibility of going forward for angie and tenko’s sake as well as her own. 

himiko’s motivation from these deaths is a positive force. she grows as a person and helps the rest of the cast through the second half of the game, ultimately ending up one of the survivors despite monokuma and tsumugi trying to crush everyone’s spirits time and time again. her strength is adaptive, and far healthier than the sources of comfort she was relying on before.

kiyo’s motivation, on the other hand, is a negative, destructive force. stuck on a self-destructive path and unable or unwilling to find a new source of strength, he ends up essentially digging his own grave. he’s inflexible, prioritizing his mission over everything else to the point of actually hindering that very goal. he acknowledges that he knew he’d have plenty of chances to kill after escaping the academy, but couldn’t resist the temptation to go through with it anyway. with patience and self-control, he could’ve made it out and accomplished what he wanted.

**personas for control**

comfort and companionship aren’t the only purposes of the tulpa. her personality, likely reflective of what her real life counterpart was like, is more aggressive and controlling than korekiyo’s. for instance, she directly insults the other students and generally acts quite arrogant, in contrast to korekiyo consistently saying that he considers all of them friends and only lashing out when he’s panicked.

this is also why she only comes out when he’s in serious distress. as i’ve said before, it’s natural to feel the need to regain your composure and take control of a situation when you feel yourself slipping, but the more upset you get, the harder it is to accomplish. korekiyo’s abilities to control the direction of a debate and generally seem powerful rest on a rather delicate foundation. the moment that calm veneer is stripped away, it becomes obvious how unstable he actually is. he’s not used to being the one in control, the one with power. sister is. asserting control over others through aggression is a tactic of bullies and abusers. 

i’d venture a guess that it might feel reassuring to be on the other end of that for once. he knows firsthand how good she is at getting her way, so maybe some small part of him actually hopes that coercing the others into voting wrong is possible. however, he’s not _completely_ on the other end — sister is still clearly controlling him through the trial, and her primary reason for making herself known is to keep his behavior in check. this shows how deeply ingrained her manipulation is. years after her death, in a life or death situation that would make anyone panic, he’s still subconsciously punishing himself for not living up to her draconian standards. this can also be seen earlier in chapter 3, when his lab is discovered. after getting overly excited about doing a seance and shuichi refusing him, he apologizes. this is the only time the voiced line “forgive me, i lost myself” is used. the polar opposite of sister’s “apologize, apologize, apologize,” to the point that it would make sense as a reply to it. 

in order to deal with intense stress or discomfort, he lets the tulpa deal with it. this distances him from the problem at hand and responsibility for it as well as providing comfort. by hiding behind and deferring to the judgment of someone he sees as wise and powerful, he can feel protected and taken care of. something that he’s probably never genuinely experienced. 

we can guess that needing to apologize to her for any number of transgressions, including being visibly upset, was part of their dynamic. furthermore, korekiyo sees it as a good thing, a sign she wants the best for him. apologizing and submitting to her whims, making her happy, would then bring relief and confidence, and this pattern continues with the tulpa. giving control to get control.

himiko’s use of personas and other selves is much more subtle, in keeping with the fact that she’s on an upward trajectory instead of downward. it’s also more of a conscious choice. she knows she’s putting on an act. korekiyo represents what could happen if she goes on lying to herself for too long and starts to actually believe it. the all-powerful, universally revered mage is a fantasy version of herself that’s much more capable of solving her problems. if only she could become _that_ himiko instead, everything would be better. 

this tendency of hers actually seems to decrease throughout the game, but she still goes back to it when she’s especially rattled, reinforcing the idea that it’s a defense mechanism. for example, after she’s trapped in the hidden room and finds the secret passage to escape, she claims it was her magic that let her escape before continuing on to explain the real reason. 

pushing negative emotions onto ‘someone else’ could also, in both cases, help fend off the possibility of rejection. if they never present their true, vulnerable selves, then any negative reactions won’t hurt as much. both of them tend to be on the periphery of the group. i’ve already discussed how part of this is due to their own actions of pushing people away, but that’s not quite the whole story. neither of them seem to be taken seriously by many people, and nobody really holds back when it comes to teasing or insulting them.

tenko is the only person who fully indulges and supports himiko’s magic. pretty much everyone else has at least one scathing comment about it, and people like kokichi and miu go much further with their insults, as they’re wont to do. she does grow closer to the others in the later part of the game, but there’s still a sense of distance that’s very obvious compared to, say, the training trio’s friendship. maki is still making snide comments to her by chapter 6, while himiko is clearly trying to get more friendly with her. part of that is just maki being maki, but overall, there’s a sense that the other characters don’t quite see himiko as being on the same level as them, something that takes until the very end to fade away.

similarly, hardly anyone seems to care when korekiyo tries to talk about his interests. people tend to be either creeped out, or generally resigned to yet another anthropology lecture. any talk about seances or the occult gets double the negative reaction. kaito and maki in particular are quite hostile towards korekiyo at times, though the worst moment of kaito’s was toned down significantly in english compared to the japanese dialogue. korekiyo doesn’t make much of an effort to integrate himself with the group, but why would he when it seems like nobody wants him around anyway?

it’s hard to say whether the group’s dislike bothers him or not. he never gives a clear indication that it does, and maybe he truly thinks it doesn’t. but deep down, there’s probably a great deal of self-loathing waiting to be unearthed. a sense that nobody could ever understand or love him, that sister is the _only_ one who would accept him and care for him. his entire belief system regarding love and healthy relationships is warped. 

**post-trial wrap up**

finally, here we are. the only place this building pattern of similarities could lead. the end of the third trial, prior to korekiyo’s execution, is the scene where everything comes together and his role as himiko’s foil is made clear. it’s an important scene for his character, obviously, with all the reveals packed into it. perhaps even the most important. it’s also one of the most important scenes for himiko.

after voting time, we get into the reveal of korekiyo’s motives. at first, it’s a pretty standard format — him addressing the group, with everyone getting a chance to chime in here and there. every blackened in the series does this. throughout, the focus of the conversation begins to narrow. this also happens pretty much every time — the blackened starts off by explaining the details relevant to everyone about why they did what they did, and then it becomes more personal. everyone else is still present, but the conversation is mostly with just one or two people. generally, these people are the protagonist and the person closest to the blackened.

individual trials have slight variations, of course, but this loose pattern tends to hold true. ishimondo, kuzupeko, hinanami, saimatsu, kaimaki...just to name the most obvious examples, all these very popular ships feature a heart-wrenching exchange before one of them is executed. regardless of how you feel about any given pairing in a romantic sense, those final moments are for very significant bonds. it would feel odd any other way. if you’re about to die, of course you’d most want to talk to someone you care about. 

what would it be like if kaede reached out to someone like kokichi instead of shuichi? or what if kaito gave parting words of advice to tsumugi instead of comforting maki? it would feel weird and jarring. the scene would be confusing you instead of making you cry. close relationships are what we expect the focus to be on in those moments. 

with that in mind, who is korekiyo primarily addressing once the focus narrows? himiko. it’s not as in your face as some of the other examples i mentioned since there isn’t as much of an established dynamic there, but it fits the pattern all the same. there’s no one else it could be. nobody is anywhere near as connected to him as himiko is. even if you say their only connection is the fact that he killed the two people she was closest to and leave it at that, that’s still far more significant than what he has with the others.

himiko is the first and most receptive to the idea of the seance, and participates most actively in helping him set up (she chooses the stone from the courtyard, chooses the room, and so on). she’s the only person kiyo directly goads and tries to provoke for no strategic reason whatsoever. she’s the one who pushes to hear his explanation when everyone else is content to have him punished as quickly as possible. everyone else is disgusted, but she’s the one who’s truly upset. the tension is palpable. this is the single most important relationship in the room.

hence why himiko is also the recipient of his last anthropology lesson, a piece of what seems to be genuinely well-intentioned advice. it’s directly in response to her saying she can’t accept it. she can’t accept the case coming to an end this way, can’t accept the unfairness of it all. she can’t accept angie and tenko’s deaths, but also, i’d argue, can’t accept korekiyo’s. not like this, anyway. though it’s rooted in anger and frustration, _she wants more time._

she needs him, or rather, needs to understand him. she needs closure and acceptance, something that will let her keep going. she ends up having to find it after he’s gone, of course, and acceptance isn’t something that can be given anyway, but in some sort of scenario where he lived longer, she wouldn’t be able to leave him alone regardless. she’d be constantly digging and provoking, trying to get _something_ out of him that would fill that void. 

on some level, i think korekiyo recognizes that, and recognizes at least a few of their similarities. his morals are skewed, but he’s not a malicious person when he doesn’t feel he has to be. he doesn’t set out with the goal of hurting anyone. that’s just collateral damage. i don’t think he’d have any desire to make someone suffer the way he did, beautiful though it might be. so why not help her a little, offer a bit of guidance? 

in his own way, he’s trying to teach her and reassure her. this really hammers home the contrast between their characters. the core traits that he serves as her foil for are coping mechanisms, especially related to death. he’s the dark, the wrong path that himiko must find the strength not to choose. what better way to emphasize that than essentially having him tell her so? he gives her his answer, all the tools that he feels she needs in order to come up with her own, and then leaves it to her. others can watch and advise, but himiko has to make a choice by herself. 

**bonus notes, or ‘i held back for 6k words, we’re shipping now’**

if you got this far, thank you for reading! i hope it was thought-provoking and did more to show why i feel that their characters make each other stronger and are so deeply intertwined. if you want to stop here, that’s cool, i know this is a longass blog. but if you stick around, i have a few more casual/loosely related thoughts that didn’t make it into the main blog. a lot of them are more ship-oriented and/or fic inspo, so if any give you an idea you want to play around with, go for it. 

(tho if anyone actually does use any _specific_ ideas of mine, a link back to this post would be cool of you)

\- they’re uniquely positioned to understand each other and work thru their trauma. i think any sort of understanding or tenderness from himiko would mean way more than from anyone else bc of all those connections. any kind of bond formed from seeing those similarities and just. being able to see each other as they truly are would be so special

\- it’s not an ‘easy’ ship and that’s part of the appeal. it’s not simple or effortless. there’s always trauma and emotional baggage to work through. there’s always two different sets of walls that need to be taken down, even in non-killing game settings. there’s conflict and difficulty and gray morals and that’s some of the beauty of it. it takes work and determination to create something healthy and nurturing out of that and i think that’s what makes enemies to friends to lovers type dynamics so fun in general. the happiness at the end feels earned.

\- kiyo calls himiko’s magic show fun during the ch2 investigation and that makes my heart warm ok? we stan supporting each other’s passions. relatedly, the singular dirty joke he makes in the entire game is directed at her and i just think that’s a fun little note

\- himiko having to go past kiyo’s lab every single time she went to and from angie’s...maybe once or twice she stopped and they talked about magic or smth 

\- himiko is generally pretty expressionless at first, and obv korekiyo’s expressions are mostly hidden by his mask so like?? one of them seeing the other smile for the first time or smth small like that, and realizing that it’s okay to open up a little bit and nothing bad will happen? p l e a s e someone write a fic of that or i’ll have to just do it myself

\- i tend to see them both as being simultaneously touch-starved and kinda avoidant of physical contact w most people so like,,, them eventually trusting each other enough to get that comfort? it kinda ties back to my point abt them being uniquely important/significant to one another. i don’t believe korekiyo needs to be ‘redeemed’ either to be a good character in general or to be ‘deserving’ of himiko, but redemption arcs are good shit sometimes, and she’d be an ideal person to help him w that in a setting where she’s already learned those lessons abt growth herself

\- nothing says ‘maybe i cared about you’ like ‘your death was the catalyst for me crying so hard i passed out and didn’t wake up until the next morning’

\- i thought nobody rly realized/talked abt them being foils (& i still stand by the fact that it’s not talked abt Enough), but literally today 6/6 i saw someone call kiyo himiko’s foil in the comment section of one of lucahjin’s videos on youtube & that’s what made me finally finish this fucking blog so i happily stand corrected 

**Author's Note:**

> pls consider writing himikiyo. consider them...


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